How can one be an atheist...

what about suicide

You should look into absurdism, OP. Absurdism is the belief that a search for meaning is inherently in conflict with the actual lack of meaning, but that one should both accept this and simultaneously rebel against it by embracing what life has to offer. So instead of desperately trying to search for meaning, just live and let live.

Matter of personal opinion. Do you want to continue with your entertainment or not?

Then again, it might be impossible to die.

>another "life has no meaning just be yourself bro" poster

Suicide is tricky mostly because it has no relation to the purpose of subjective experience even though they are often lumped together. Just because something doesnt have a purpose doesnt mean it needs to be ended. Suicide adds no commentary on the strictest measure of the value of reality.

What's wrong with that?

to see how far the pain can go

Who cares lol

yeah but if life has no purpose i don't really want to keep living

Kill yourself then

Or carry on shitposting about how meaningless it all is

Not that your choice matters

youtu.be/KI25easQs2k

I'm sure you have a purpose user. Probably something like making everyone else feel better about themselves.

Ok but that's poor logic. Also you're a human so you can fortunately define meaning where it doesnt necessarily exist, also meaning that it isnt necessarily untrue or synthetic.

if all human life has no purpose neither does mine feeling good means nothing and is no more justified than feeling bad. i really just want it to stop so that i can just stop being awake and aware of all this. i just want to turn it off. when i accepted the meaningless everything around me just became annoying, nothing was precious, valuable or even worth doing

Life doesn't need to matter in and of itself, or to the world in any kind of permanent way in order to be enjoyable.
Your experience of being is still "You" and things can still be interesting, satisfying, enjoyable and matter to you, whether or not they're important to the grand scheme of everything forever is entirely outside of that

i don't know what you mean. if i create meaning and it is just a figment of my imagination how is it not synthetic or untrue

dont bother this guy
is 14 and a tool of global capitalism who heard someone say "create your OWN values in the face of meaninglessness maaaan!" once

You might not actually have a choice in the matter.

Hyper-advanced beings in the universe's future (or from outside it) are probably going to employ spacetime shenanigans in order to preserve all the sentient minds in history despite bodily death. Depending on the being(s) managing this digital continuation of life, your requests to die for real may not be granted, and if they are, there's nothing preventing a different entity from scooping up the minds that the first ones allow to "die".

You want to end it only because you wish to.
You can change your wishes.

Because those statements are unfortunately more true than the supernatural aspects of religion. Why believe in something we know isn't possible? Religions are really nice. Created with the best intentions. At the time, it was probably as correct as anything could be. "if everyone does these things, we'll have some semi-functional society and we wont have to waste time asking what the point of it all is. oh yeah, make it from the creator of the universe who sees everything you do to make sure people follow the rules."
And then we started actually believing it. It's a bad habit, like smoking, that serves a function, but it can be done without. Relaxation/spiritual contentment can be had without nicotine or supernatural doctrine. We will never be able to escape the need for group think and shared ideology though.

(We absolutely should create secular "church." more like Carl Sagan, Mr. Rogers, and Salsa Music than Dick Dorkins or Sam Harisson though.)

Yea thats exactly how life works by any definition you stupid fuck, whether you like it or not. What do you fucking do all day? Stare at the wall?

>we no there is no meaning
>let's pretend to have meaning thou
so the answer to being intelligent and continuing to live is cognitive dissonance

why the fuck would they do that, what possible reason would they have for that

> How can one be a total retard and still thinks life is worth living

Idk, stop being a retard?

Because of quantum mechanics. Things aren't predetermined, they're random.
Life has RNG
Also became the illusion of free will is just as good as the real thing itself.

To entertain themselves.

It's what I'm going to do if I don't die first.

i would say that is cruel and wrong but suffering doesn't really matter, it is just one thing among many others

>don't worry life isn't a series of predetermined physical reactions
>it is just a swirling vortex of chaos
thanks m8

All actions are basically equal when you're dealing with eternity. Things just are.

>he didn't read the second part

yeah, that is concept i opened up my post with and then i asked how i could possibly enjoy continuing to be

being able to choose or not choose in a void means nothing it is just the choice between nothing and nothing

So, it's better if you pretend that life isn't worthless so you can atleast be happy instead of in constant depression.

>cognitive dissonance is the key to happiness

What fucking "meaning," do you want? Some deity's chess game? Does the absurd Xtian idea of Judgement Day and singing around the giant disco throne of God seem like it has a point? What do you even mean by the word "meaning"? Your life can make a lot of people happier or sadder, change everyone you meet in some way, you might have kids, you might kill a foreign leader or start a forest fire... ultimately of course nothing means anything, but that's why we're programmed to enjoy sunsets and beautiful women and beer, so we can enjoy our lives before we become useful compost. Life is the only form of existence we can count on, and entertaining as hell. Enjoy it aesthetically, read and learn for fun, and then die and be happy fertilizer. You don't need a fucking cosmic destiny.

You know what they say, ignorance is bliss.

You choose to

Hence the higher rates of depression among those with above-average intelligence.

the cognitive dissonance thing comes up a lot

so there is no objective reason to do anything at all, but rather i should just follow my instinct

It's not really cognitive dissonance, there.

Meaninglessness isn't a thing to be depressed or frustrated about- rather, you choose your own opinion of it.

>combination of their biology and prior conditioning
Yes but that doesn't mean shit's predetermined. Even animals can make decisions.

Essentially

Not at all: the immediate objective rational reasons to do things remain. Your existential crisis is unconnected to them. The reasons are just sensible, societal, and specific to time and place. Stop looking for universals that don't exist. Actions should be generally pragmatic and helpful, to avoid unnecessary trouble.

so there is no reason to live or die and i just have to be happy with that or not be happy with that

>Should be
in a world without free choice and no real consequence or meaning for actions there can't be a should but rather a desire

Correct

Because almost nobody truly believes this. Just as there's a huge difference between knowing that death is inevitable and fully realizing your own mortality; so there is a huge difference between stating a philosophical position and living it as truth.

TLDR they spook themselves and wont admit it

Because everything is the same as has always been, you're just less spooked.

Your problem is too much bloody ontology. "Should be" is part of a sentence implying "if you want to make your life more pleasant and not piss off the world around you needlessly." It isn't some ultimate meaning, because (as we already covered) they don't exist. We all have working contingent morals and values based on our upbringing and the laws/expectations of society. Knowing these are contingent limited constructs--working compromises--doesn't rob them of utility or make them meaningless. Most people try to feed their desires and make decisions that sustain a crude balance and harmony between their own wants and the society's demands they're subject to. It's great fun. Every now and then, I get to give a dancer friend a massage and take a few photos.

but they literally are meaningless, even if a society likes them or they feel good doesn't mean they have meaning it just means that you like them and so do other people

>muh meaning
Start with the Buddhists.

Because they delude themselves into accepting the presumption that they can define their own meaning.

These people end up thirsty for God, and to paraphrase Tommy, try to cover that thirst with carnality and reasonworship.
>rejecting God but still trying to be '''''spiritual'''''
Why don't you just give up your ego and stop deluding yourself into a simplistic, reductionist and ultimately, solipsist realm?
do this thing cuz i sed so btw theres no meaning praise raisins

Now stop avatarfagging.

>can't be spiritual if you reject God
lel

That's all that meaning is. That's the limit of the damn word's practical verifiable meaning. If you want to be religious, go be religious, but there is no "meaning" beyond this life, aside from elaborate fantasies. Just because you've decided that "meaning" must include cosmic significance on a level you can't even define doesn't make it anything but delusion.

>being this mad about the term meaning while also rejecting meaning
why are you angry about this and when did i say anything about religon

>but there is no "meaning" beyond this life, aside from elaborate fantasies
Cite your sources

You can't be because you reject spirit in every form.
>but there is no "meaning" beyond this life
becuz i sed so
Trash like him are always angry because the cognitive dissonance and ignorance of love they suffer forces them into a mindset where they praise reason but reject meaning, and attempt to be spiritual whilst rejection spirit.

See

What makes you think I'm angry? You have repeatedly used the words "meaningful" and "sacred" and rejected all applications of meaning that are limited to human existence. You, user, seemingly desperately want religion, or some version of it that will provide this imaginary vast significance to your existence. I'm just pointing out that such "meaning" doesn't exist, and that's fine. If it's not fine for you, you're a seeker looking into the realms of the sacred. Many people are. I am happy to be as meaningless and sacred as a boulder or rain.

Not him, but if what people refer to as "spirit" isn't literal, wouldn't it just become a metaphor for an aspect of the human condition most commonly associated with the word?

>cuz i sed so
it doesn't exist cuz i sed so

>human condition
And you people say you reject metaphysical meaning.

My source is all verifiable and perceivable reality. Prove me wrong.
OP started this pity party citing an atheist materialist viewpoint. That's what I'm working with. If you believe in other stuff, the onus is on you. It doesn't concern me.

>cuz i sed so
What? I was merely pointing out to a certain religion that is highly spiritual while rejecting God. Sure it doesn't have Spirit as in Holy Spirit, but literally no one uses the word spiritual while thinking of it.

What? I mean it in a casual way, referring vaguely to similarities shared by most humans.

>verifiable and perceivable
why is this correct?

proof is needed cuz i sed so btw there is no meaning

Now stop avatarfagging. Worthless sophist.

ok fine convince me there is a spirit or a god, or a cosmic whatever

>convince me
You fail to even comprehend religion, is this why you chose an intellectually-bankrupt copout?

calm down a bit
i don't really care it is religious or not just some sort of verifiable, objective reason to keep living

what cop-what did i do, i just said maybe i should view the world as a materialist and an atheist. why shouldn't i view the world in any other way

yeah /b/ro ill convince you of something you have already presumed to not exist and goes against your ideology, that will work.

>My source is all verifiable and perceivable reality. Prove me wrong.
It's all a matter of defining meaning in relation to life though.
Also verifiable reality would be laws of physics and other scientific knowledge, which are limited, while the average person's perception is extremely unreliable for some matters. These don't guarantee objective knowledge in this case.

i don't have am ideology i am sad because i am starting to think that there is no spirit, god or reason to live. i would really like to hear your angle i promise i won't make fun of you

>i don't have an ideology
delusion

really i don't know what to believe about this world

You've already been talked through the solution to your problem

i want to know what you think

About the same

ideology is a representational structure by which you imagine your place in the world. everyone has it.

Very true, but that way lies madness. Without some measure of faith in our senses we would be afraid to take a step. We all have ideologies, ethics, morality, values: without them you couldn't be integrated enough to be having this discussion here. But yes, I do personally define meaning in relation to life because nothing else has convinced me to do otherwise. I don't care what other folks find higher meaning in, but it does seem a shame when I see them look at the entire range of our planet, history, human achievement, nature, science, and say, "Okay, but is that it? That's not enough." Honestly, I'm glad I'm not in that boat.
But, it's contingent, not absolute.Your life experiences aren't "nothing." They happen. Memory and action don't have to be eternal to matter, and experience is always influential to you and everyone else. If you can't be reconciled to a limited influence and meaning in life, I honestly think you'll have to explore some forms of spirituality at the very least, if not an actual religion.

>just some sort of verifiable, objective reason to keep living
This doesn't apply. The whole "mystery of life" thing is there because we cannot have an impersonal verification of different reasons that are proposed for living, otherwise everybody would agree on the same thing and there'd be less problems.
I wasn't joking when I posted .

>meaning doesn't exist
>makes up meaning in irrelevant materialist trash whilst continuing to post an ugly old hag

>faith in senses is good
>faith in God is bad

This is why no one takes you children seriously.

>But yes, I do personally define meaning in relation to life
Of course. I meant the way you do that.
>the entire range of our planet, history, human achievement, nature, science, and say, "Okay, but is that it? That's not enough." Honestly, I'm glad I'm not in that boat.
You're just a materialist hedonist though. Deprived of the external objects that make you happy your way of existence would change and you wouldn't say the same things you do now. Other people might feel the winds of impermanence and unsatisfactoriness already so all that stuff isn't, ultimately, that significant to them (doesn't mean that there is no significance at all). Of course there are also many who look at those things and do feel meaning; it's just that they also need a... meaningful explanation with them at the center or at least at an important role regarding how all that is possible, and why does it happen in the way it does. All major religions except one are based on that search. So it's more nuanced than just "they look at all these worldly things and don't think that's enough".
And of course, you also have people who feel those are insignificant while still essentially thinking in materialist terms only. That generally causes depression of some kind.
>I honestly think you'll have to explore some forms of spirituality at the very least, if not an actual religion.
This should be directed to someone else as this post probably makes clear where I come from.

Are you high?
>my utterly unsubstantiated concept of a deity should be given equal weight as the senses that detect everything we perceive from birth to death.
Go to bed, silly troll.

it shouldnt cuz i sed so im going to presuppose the truth in senses and use this fallacy to make you look stupid because im a worthless sophist

Idk who cares dude

You cannot expect to understand everything about life if you are a part of it.
In other words, you are just a single human being.

You are expecting ants to understand where the earthquakes come from when a human walks above.

Life is something that can't be comprehended beyond things we choose to confine it to: secularism, religion, or nihilism, and whatever -ism.

How can people possibly expect to understand something so complex and overreaching?

EVEN IF YOU DO UNDERSTAND: I doubt it would be of very much relevance to YOU, a single human being.

So, instead of concerning yourself with meaning of life - which is a good waste of time - focus on your current problems, fix them, and search deep down what meaning you would want to create.

I'm not saying you can create the MEANING OF LIFE. NO! that's fucking absurd.

Create meaning on your own terms, on smaller things that are a part of life.

Without life, there would be only silence - the universe would just be cold rocks moving in a circle, forever. THAT would be truly meaningless. But by living, being sentient, we can feel or want or be *something*, and that creates a meaning. Even pain is still *something* more than void.